ajws orientation and bodh gaya

well, i certainly have been negligent. i have taken over 300 pictures, and have been trying to sort them so i could post some of them coherently. so much for aspirations. i need to get some stuff written or no one will really believe i am here.

last week was a 4-1/2 day american jewish world service orientation for the nine volunteers, the three staffers and five of the ngo directors. it was outstanding. they used a variety of teaching methods, some lectures, some discussions, a few field trips. indian history (the aryans invaded from the area of mesopotamia, going east and west; cultural do's and don't's (no books or papers on the floor and definitely don't push them with your feet and do not let the launderer do your intimate articles. that is what the sink is for. and cover them with a towel if they are hung on a viewable clothes line); representing judaism (the usual pluralistic approach); indian and american values in the workplace (much more socializing in india, eating in the office together and bringing food for one another; policies on gift giving (can't do it as it creates inappropriate expectations for future volunteers and is not a sustainable way to problem solve). a lot of discussion of the outlawed caste system and the untouchables (dalits) with whom many of the ngo's work.

the overarching themes: sharing the jewish call to social justice and offering our abilities in that spirit, and doing sustainable work. if we are not training or working on a project that will continue/grow after our departure, a project that depends on us alone, we shouldn't be doing it. we are also not here to impose our vision or will, but to respond to the expressed desires and needs of the ngo's with whom we work.

in the ten days before i started work on 26 jan, i stayed in patna, bihar for three days (2 million people, bihar state is one of the fastest growing in india (there are 28 of them), and then took a bus to bodh gaya (4 hours, cost rupees 60 or $1.50) for three days. that was enough for a tourist's view, but it would have been lovely to stay for a week or so. it feels very spiritual and holy.

bodh gaya is one of three central buddhist holy centers. it is the site where guthama siddhartha achieved enlightment after mediating under the boda tree under where he vowed to stay until he achieved enlightenment. it worked. the mahabodhi temple is beautiful and visitors, monks, the devoted, numbering in the hundreds, walk and meditate around it. a cutting from the original bodha tree still grows.

the story of siddhartha is very interesting. raised as a prince, siddhartha's father tried to shelter him from the world outside the family compound. unfortunately (for his father), siddhartha went out one day and saw an aged person, then a sick person, the next a dead person. he could not understand why to live if these were the outcomes and life was such suffering. at the age of 29, he left his home, wife and child, to seek another way, a way to transcend the pain that he had seen. at first a medicant, then a long journey with many turns, it ended with enlightenment in bodh gaya. there, he escaped the perpetual cycle of reincarnation to reach nirvana.













malachala cave, an auto rickshaw ride away, is a cave in which siddhartha meditated, without food or water, for six years before going to the bodha tree. there is a special icon of the fasting buddha in cave. by legend, his navel touched his spine.

my journey then took me by night train to varanasi, the holy site for hindus. cremation on the banks of the ma ganges river allows the departed to go directly to nirvana and leave the cycle of reincarnation.

but more on that next time. it has taken me two hours to write this and figure out how to post pictures.